Review of Last Breath of Innocence

The Last Breath of Innocence

By Anna Cartman

Reviewed by Author Roy Murry

This story of two young adults, Keeley the narrator and her childhood boyfriend Kieran, grow into teens with baggage that defines their choices.

Confused in their entanglement, those choices crossed them over to the wrong side of the law.

Ms. Cartman’s novel holds you to the end, laying out Keeley’s reasons as to why she gets up each morning in a household she had no choice in living in, because of parent’s demise. Her only male friend, Kieran, moves in next door when she is eleven years old.

Their relationship builds, but Kieran is forced to leave because of an event they could not control. Meeting again in their teens, that event’s effect on their personalities brings them together in a strange one-sided love affair.

Ms. Cartman brings you to a chilling end of that relationship, which will stick with you after reading the last chapter. Throughout the novel, you will sympathize with Keeley’s plight to find herself, which we can all empathize with.

Innocence is captured in this well-written young adult novel. We were all young and will understand their choices.

Purchased at Amazon:http://amzn.to/1NRwpzk

Review of Last Stop: Paris

Last Stop: Paris

By John Pearce

Reviewed Author Roy Murry

This adventure is centered on a couple named Eddie and Aurelie, who resides in Paris. They're coming together, living together, and future is exciting and needed to understand the going on.

These two socialites are in a whirlwind that will define their future. International characters come back into their lives, and they will help determine their future.

Mixed with murder, kidnapping, international gold standard fixing, and Russian mafia movement, the couple are included in a non-official crime-fighting group including the USA’s CIA and Interpol. These characters’ subplots commingled with the main one that drives this thrilling story forward.

All the characters are well defined and primed for another adventure when Last Stop is consumed. The bad guys didn’t fare so well. However, some doors are left open which could lead to the couple’s future involvement.

Last Stop: Paris, like Mr. Pearce’s Treasure of Saint-Lazare, is a fast-paced thriller that can be read individually or read after Treasure… I have read both and can say that I will be looking forward to reading another of Mr. Pearce’s intriguing novels.

Get both at Amazon: http://amzn.to/1JtaCfo

Review of Raindancer

Raindancer (Vega)

By P Alan Davis

Reviewed by Author Roy Murry

I am a man who likes an active woman in novels and life. Mr. Davis’ protagonist is a strong woman by the name of Xanszia, who is sent on a mission by her father to find her siblings.

That adventure is across the intergalactic spectrum with thrilling episodes from the past and the future. The characters move in parallel spaces, treks are made to foreign and barbaric worlds, and planets are negotiated to solve wars.

Xanszia, on her mission, is confronted with evil on many levels that test her femininity and her fortitude to complete what she has set out to end. She is at the centered of the ultimate fate of the universe. How she handles her ambassadorship will decide its destiny.

Mr. Davis gives us an imaginary journey into a world surrounding Xanszia's adventure that makes you enjoy its existence. The characters, he has developed, are colorful and exciting.

The story flows smoothly with all the details put in place to keep the reader wanting to know the outcome, which is a surprise. For those who like the unusual, I recommend this read.

Get at Amazon: http://amzn.to/1mux1UF

Review of From New York to the Smokies

From New York to the Smokies

By Wayne Zurl

Reviewed by Author Roy Murry

I read about sixty books a year and sometimes come back to one of my favorites. Wayne Zurl’s Sam Jenkins, I once called spiffy, is an ex-New York detective, who becomes the Chief of Police in a small town in the Smokies (Mountain range at the Tennessee – North Carolina border, USA.)

In this book, Sam is put in multiple situations where experience police detective work is needed to arrive at a satisfactory conclusion. I won’t go into the individual plots but will say that Mr. Zurl’s characters are well developed and fun to read about.

You can tell Sam is the outsider and is working at a somewhat disadvantage because of the culture clash. Mountain small town people don’t do things the same way as city people like Sam would do.

However, there are common traits in all of us humans, and Sam understands them in the way he approaches a crime. You’ll love how his humanity gets him to where he wants to go in his crime solving.

Enjoyable fast reads at Amazon:  http://amzn.to/1S1RLPu

Review of Just East of Key West

Just East of Key West

By Tom Winton

Reviewed by Author Roy Murry

Even though I am not a fisherman, I was pulling on the line with the protagonist Frank towards the end. He has gone on a fishing trip passing by different characters on the wharf.

They are not the center of the story. Like in Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea, I got the feeling that Frank enjoyed his venture down to the sea. Without the sea, they would not be complete.

He gets irritated with those who don’t cherish the moment of fishing. Those are the people who don’t prepare for the event.

He gets upset with himself in the middle of this game in trying to catch a big one. He made an error in preparation and would be damned.

Whether he or the fish will be damned on the last pull of the rode will be known to you in the last paragraph of this fast-paced novella. Like me, you will get caught up in action.

At Amazon: http://amzn.to/1NwraHe

Review of Bentwhistle the Dragon

Bentwhistle the Dragon

                  In

A Threat from the Past

By Paul Cude

Reviewed by Roy Murry

Did you know that dragons turn into humans? Neither did I. But, Mr. Cude does an excellent job of convincing me of them existing in the days of yore. Maybe they are still with us.

Seriously, young adults will enjoy this fantasy. A parallel world is interwoven with the reality protecting it from the evils of that world.

Dragons shift into human form. They do this to infiltrate our supposedly superior, friendly world, helping protect people from the monsters of the world.

Mr. Cude told a story that was amusing and delightful. The prose was more telling than showing but keeps the reader's interested. You will look at people after reading this novel and wondering if they are dragons or not. LOL

Take a journey that is written for the young at heart, which I am one. Are you?

Purchase: https://amzn.to/2ZIO8GZ

Review of Amina: The Silent One

Amina: The Silent One

Written by Fiza Pathan

Reviewed by Author Roy Murry

A beautiful girl is brought into the world. What more could a loving couple want? In many cultures, including India, they would want a boy first and foremost.

Amina is the third child of Jaffar and his wife, as she is referred to throughout most of the story. Not only is Amina the third, but she is the third girl of an Indian Muslim family.

The matriarch of the family is outraged and begs Allah to forgive the family for their sins. Why else would Allah curse them with not three but five girls and no boy to carry on their name?

To the matriarch and many in their society, a girl is to be used for domestic chores, childbearing, and for the pleasure of her husband. She has no rights or to progress in the new world order.

In Amina, Ms. Pathan paints a vivid and disturbing picture of how women are USED (For no other appropriate word) by the ignorant religious male controllers of some societies. Unfortunately, this persists in some parts world today.

This is a story of an Indian family that has a disaster, setbacks, and jubilation.  Amina, though, is the center of it, where she receives the brunt of her country’s brutal underbelly of illegal use of women. It is her innate natural ability to play music, listen intently, and not speak, that helps her overcome the ignorance around her.

Ms. Pathan writes with a knowledgeable pen. Her colorful ink I will enjoy reading again, soon.

Check her out at http://amzn.to/1S1Tg06